Issue 144
August 2016
Demian Maia has rediscovered his suffocating jiu-jitsu and expects his tapouts will earn him a title shot.
It's hard to believe Demian Maia once went more than three years without submitting anyone in mixed martial arts. But more recently the Brazilian jiu-jitsu master has fallen in love with an aggressive grappling style again and has spent almost the entirety of his fights hunting for a choke or lock. Now on a five-fight winning streak, his next target is the 170lb champion’s neck.
Why were you less aggressive with your jiu-jitsu for so long?
A Sometimes you get more conservative. When you start to grow in the organization and you get close to the title shot you feel more pressure, but I tried to relieve this pressure in my last four or five fights and it’s been working. I’ve had good performances and dominated the fights. I’ve had submissions and I’m feeling the right way now.
How happy were you to win your recent fights using BJJ – especially a black belt like Gunnar Nelson?
A That means a lot. My work is going in the right direction, my team is doing great, I’m doing great, we keep evolving, we keep evolving and that’s proof of that. You know what you’re doing is right and in the back of your mind you always have doubt. ‘Am I really doing right and getting better?’ When you do something like that you’re very satisfied.
The (Nelson) fight I was trying to submit a lot. You can see with Neil Magny I got the submission, but the fight against Gunnar I tried to go to the arm, I tried to go to the neck, but he’s such a good jiu-jitsu fighter. But I opened up with the ground-and-pound.
Did you focus too much on your striking before?
A Of course I was trying a lot more standup but after that I was more focused on jiu-jitsu and I was able to take down tougher guys. Every fight I’ve done at welterweight – I’ve been able to take guys down. Even the fights I lost. It’s just about focus. I think my focus was just about pure standup. Maybe it wasn’t in the right way – mixing with my takedowns. I’ve fixed that and we’re doing the right thing. We changed our goals, we changed how we train and that’s made my game change also. We’ve come back to the old jiu-jitsu style but now with more experience in standup fighting.
Did you expect you would be able to submit Matt Brown at UFC 198?
A Every fighter I go to fight, I believe in my technique and I believe I can take them down like I’ve done in all my fights at welterweight, and I believe I can submit. I believe I’ve been training so long in this game I can take (anyone) down.
Who have you trained with to improve your BJJ?
A I came to Marcelo (Garcia) many times. I have known him for many years and he is the guy who always looking for submissions. He doesn’t worry about points. He’s the best ever in no-gi jiu-jitsu. When I come here my goal is to learn a lot of new stuff, open my mind and see new things, especially when I’m not in camp. I have more time to test new techniques and open my grappling ability.
Besides yourself, who are the best BJJ players in MMA?
A (Fabricio) Werdum is good. He submitted one of the toughest fighters ever (Cain Velasquez). Rafael dos Anjos is doing well in jiu-jitsu. Luke Rockhold has good jiu-jitsu, but he doesn’t use it too much… Jacare (Souza) is an unbelievable athlete. He keeps going. He never gives up. He’s so strong and explosive.
Who will you try and submit next?
A I want to fight for the title. It’s five (wins) in a row. Whoever wins (Robbie Lawler vs. Tyron Woodley) I want to fight the winner. It doesn’t matter.
OLD HABITS DIE HARD
Q Do you still train in the gi?
A When I’m not in camp every Friday I train in the gi with my competition team in Brazil, but mainly no-gi. I try to train at least once a week in a gi because I like it.
Q. Do you still have fun?
A Um, it depends on the guy. There are some guys that are too good. You get some new-generation guys who make it hard for me to fight with them. The problem is not too much their submissions, it’s hard to submit them. MMA is different because you have the punches and kicks to help you, so I’ve been doing something different these last years.
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